Today was Kasumi's birthday. She had just turned five. It was early and the sky was still dark with a hint of pink shining from the east. He could hear his little girl training and he was met with conflicting emotions. A part of him was happy with how fast his daughter was learning everything. She had made a genin a few months ago. He had been observing her since and estimated her on par with a chunin.

Another part wanted to make her stay far away from all of this. He knew people were vilifying her because he failed the mission. What did she do to get that? How could he let his fellow shinobi die? But he understood that because of the failure of the mission much more people died and that fact was killing him. That part, his daughter somehow didn't know about or she didn't want to say anything about. How did his daughter handle all of this, he didn't know but he was glad that she could do it.

But he couldn't anymore. No one trusted him and it was a matter of time for his daughter to turn against him as she's just a kid, and that fact scared him more than anything. But he had to stay strong for Kasumi and her mother would never forgive him if he did something stupid.

"Kasumi, get ready!" He voiced.

"Yes, just in a few minutes." she answered.

"Don't make me say it again, ok?" He replied.

"All right!"

Every year, on her birthday, he and Kasumi visit his wife, Mio's grave. Each year that might be his last but he believed his wife would protect him just like how she did in the fight with the puppet master from Suna.

"Daddy, I'm ready. Why aren't you?" His daughter asked with curiosity as she peaked through his open door. Why isn't he ready anyways? "Ah, I'm sorry, I forgot." He said, laughing it off. Then, Kasumi came into his room, dragged him up off his bed and pushed him towards the bathroom. "Get ready daddy." She said, clearly annoyed. "Sure sure." He said being amused by her behaviour, while patting her head.

Sakumo took out his trusty black sweatshirt and pants and wore his jonin vest over it. Mio always complained that he didn't have any style and always wore the same clothes. "Daddy, are you ready yet?" Kasumi came into his room again and he noticed her wearing a greyish purple dress he had gotten her some time ago, for her birthday. Truth be told, it was her own choice and Sakumo concluded that she had gotten her mother's fashion sense. But she hadn't made her hair yet. Sakumo took a brush out of his drawer and started brushing her hair. He pinned her hair and since it was chilly outside took out a white scarf and wrapped it around her neck. "Shall we go?" He asked. "Yeah." she replied.

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The walk towards the cemetery was a fair bit long as Sakumo's house was situated

On the outskirts of Konoha, Kasumi was talking about how every mission she was a part of. It was still D class missions with a few C and an A??

Why was she on an A class mission and why was he not informed about this. He will have a word with the young Namikaze

"Lately…no one has been talking to me daddy…did I do something bad?"

Sakumo had forgotten that, although being a shinobi came to her naturally she was just a child

"They will, just…just give them time. Has someone tried to hurt you?"

"No, most of them are scared of me for some reason, but there is this uchiha guy in my team,ugh…he is annoying, always talking about how he will become a hokage, I don't know what's wrong with him." She pouts.

"He even tried to fight me to prove that he can be a hokage…he lost." A huge proud grin was plastered on her face

"Ha ha ha ha…don't mind him…maybe he wants to be friends with you"

"He does?" Kasumi looks at him with hope. He did know she didn't have many friends before the 'incident', but after…she was excluded from most friend groups or something, he barely understood his kid, let alone a bunch of 5-year old kids being trained for being soldiers and assassins.

"I don't know, maybe he does." He looks at her, they are almost on their way to the cemetery.

"Oh.." disappointed "There is also Rin, I like Rin, she is great."

"Can you tell Daddy more about this Rin?" He is curious about the person, his daughter has just praised.

"Hmmm, I don't know, she is just a nice people."

"It's 'person', Kasumi, 'person'." He finds it somewhat amusing. These kids really are not supposed to be doing A rank missions or matter of fact, any missions.

"Daddy, don't make fun of me!" She pouts again.

As they get closer, Sakumo feels something rising in his chest, even after doing this for five years, this feeling still persists. And despite being an expert in reading shinobis, he hasn't fully figured out what he is feeling. But it always makes him helpless and nervous. They enter the cemetery, and the feeling increases. Has he been a good shinobi, has he been a good dad, did he do the right thing during the mission.

There wasn't a moment, where he wished the holder of those answers was still with him. He was sure that she would have understood what their daughter was going through and she would have consoled her better than he ever could.

"Daddy are you ok?" she holds his hand.

"Ah! Ah, yeah-yeah-yeah, I'm fine." Pats her head light.

"You don't need to worry about me Kasumi."

"Well mom's not here to worry about you, so I'll do it."

His stomach sank further. He managed to cough his feelings off and surely, no five year-old is going to figure out what he was going through.

They reach the grave of his wife. He instructed Kasumi to light the incense and put it on the grave. He hates doing this every single year, he just wants it to stop, he wished this was the last time he had to do this, but-

Suddenly he felt a chakra spike, a mission failing mistake, since he was sure that 'they' were not friends. This was interesting, how did they manage to get past Yamanakas? He will have to check with them later.

"Kasumi, go to your sensei and meet me by 3pm, Daddy needs to prepare for your birthday, ok?" He smiles and ruffles her hair

"Okay daddy!" And there she goes, Sakumo smiles.

Okay, he had enough time, dealt with 'them', and get Kasumi her cake. She loved cake, also they were probably chunin so…. wait…the chakra spike must have been a bait, no way someone would send chunin after him. Good thing he had sent Kasumi away.

"Hey, stalking me in a cemetery? That's a new low" he sees two people wearing black cloaks, a kid with red hair and a guy with stickers on his face.

"You guys are an interesting bunch eh?" He needs to assess them, though he doesn't know much redhead, he assumed the guy with the stitches is Kakuzu, and according to the bingo book, he was someone the book advised fighting against, especially solo.

"Is this our guy, kid?" Kakuzu asked nonchalantly. The redhead nodded.

"Hey hey, I don't know what you want or anything, but I advise that a fight inside Konoha would be a disadvantage for you two"

"Unless the fight is over in a few minutes" Kakuzu taunts Sakumo

"You really think that?"

"I am sitting this one out kiddo, you handle him." Kakuzu said while sitting down on the ground.

Did he really think that the redhead could handle him?

"I don't understand why the leader made you come with me, you shouldn't have killed your partner like that." The redhead says looking at the seated man

"He was boring."

The back and forth went on for a few minutes leaving Sukumo just standing there. If he sends a chakra spike now, he will get brutally ambushed, and if Kakuzu was S-rank missing nin, the other guy must be too. It's strange though, it's like he had seen him somewhere.

"Fine" the redhead said to the seated man, and he leaps at Sakumo

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This was a relatively quiet day for Inoichi Yamanaka, which was actually great since he really didn't know how to handle the surveillance division. The Division leader was gone on a mission and since he did not have any 'meetings' today, he was covering for his clan member, Aoki.

He suddenly felt a chakra spike, somewhat faint, but he knew who it was, Sakumo Hatake. Why would he though?

"Hey! Umm, you there, send someone to the cemetery area, as soon as possible."

"Yes Sir!"

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5 minutes, He has been fighting the redhead puppet master for 5 minutes and he had already lost chakra to his right arm. He was massively underprepared to say the least.

"You…" pants "You're Lady Chiyo's grandson aren't you? I remember your father, he was pretty tricky to deal with."

"You finally figured it out good for you"

"So is this your revenge for killing your parents." To say that Sasori cared about his parents would be a lie, but to fight the person who orphaned him, he was excited.

"No."

Hmm, an interesting answer, what's more interesting was the puppet he was using.

"So a hyuga puppet huh? It's really risky to bring her in here." He knew about this girl, and the commotion the Hyugas had caused when she went missing, now they knew where she went.

"I just wanted to test her out, just finished making her last week."

Sakumo's blood boiled at that. This girl was just a teen. For all he knew, this could be his little girl.

He can't do this much longer, hopefully the backup arrives, but this was a secluded area, far from the village, nearest actually being his property.

"So, why are you fighting me?"

"Do you always talk in between fights?"

Sakumo chuckles

"Then why are we standing idle?"

"Just giving you a breather."

"You, cocky child." And Sakumo leaps at him.

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I am back, I guess. I had lost interest in Naruto and Fanfictions, but I really want to write this hehehe. Writing a fight for a guy who has done absolutely nothing combat-wise that I remember of, is hard. Chapter 3 is already in the works it will take at most a month. I am looking forward to getting to the main parts of this fic. Writing as a whole is hard, I admire people who put out 4k chapters in weeks.